


Ruby Red

by Jen425



Category: Original Works
Genre: Complicated Relationship(s), F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26397556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: Moments in the life of Ruby Spear and her relationship with her children and the superhero “The Wing”
Relationships: Female Supervillain & Her Kids, Female Supervillain/Male Superhero
Comments: 8
Kudos: 13
Collections: Het Swap Exchange 2020





	Ruby Red

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rubynye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubynye/gifts).



> I like writing original works in exchanges, ngl. Spear ended up more of an antihero than planned, but *shrugs*

“You don’t have to fight,” he says for the hundredth time. “There are better ways to make change.”

“No one listens to better ways,” the supervillain frowns. “They never have, and they never will.”

No one listens at all, not to her. Not unless she dresses up in black and red leather and spandex and stabs the real monsters through with glowing red spikes.

The hero flies towards her, calmly. She ignores him.

“Aria—”

“That’s not my name,” she growls, stabbing  _ him  _ through and nailing him with five of the eight spikes. They impale him hanging on a skyscraper. She flies forwards in turn and takes his chin. “You know as well as anyone why that isn’t my name.”

And because she had in fact already succeeded, she leaves without another word.

She ignores the way she’s shaking as she leaves.

No one ever listens to her.

  
  
  


The rich and powerful get away with everything, and nothing last when trying to stop them. She wishes that wasn’t the case, wishes the police had cared when she escaped SaibrCo’s experimentation facilities, but no one had. No one had cared that she was the oldest there at seventeen, that the youngest had been two.

Just like no one cares now, five years later, that when she pulls a simple crime like thievery, it’s to take care of the kids who hadn’t been able to go home.

“Spear?” One of said kids asks. He was the oldest who had stayed, now seventeen himself. John takes online school under a pseudonym and occasionally helps her in assassinations with his invisibility and electrokinesis under the name “Electromirror”. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, John,” she promises. “Our resident  _ hero _ just decided to get in my way.”

John huffs.

“Heroes like him are too idealistic,” he says. “It would solve so many problems if they didn’t exist.”

“I completely agree,” she says. “Oh, speaking of heroes, how are the twins doing?”

John shakes his head.

“I don’t understand why you support them when they’re actively working with The Wing’s little sidekick,” he says.

“I listen to what you guys ask of me,” Spear reminds him. “If Mack and Jenna want to be ‘heroes’ with Wingboy and stick with what a pair of fifteen year old girls with metal skin and superspeed can handle, I’ll let them stop some bank robberies and back alley crimes. I trust them not to reveal our location. Or their real identities.”

John sighs.

“I know,” he says. “I just. I worry about them.”

Spear smiles.

“You’re a good kid, John,” she says.

  
  
  


Wing stares at her.

“Ariana, what are you doing here?” He asks. Spear, short for Ruby Spear, rolls her eyes.

“That’s not my name,” she says. “And it seems to  _ me _ like the real villain nabbed us  _ both _ while you were busy with me.”

“You were going to  _ kill _ him,” Wing argues.

“Right,” Spear says. “Like this is so much better.”

“I…”

Spear merely rolls her eyes and activated her lock pick. It’s a good thing most villains don’t expect those with superpowers to have gadgets on hand.

“I’ll release you after I kill the bastard,” she says. “See you around.”

  
  
  


Lizzie, the youngest, the two year old when they met, is knocking on her door nervously like Spear hadn’t let all ten of her kids in for years.

Lizzie and Jack and Peter, 7 and 9 and 10 are the only three who call her mom, the other see her more as a sister or simply don’t call her such, but she sees all of them as hers.

Zack comes in a later, and then Jess.

Some nights are like this, and she doesn’t mind one bit.

  
  
  


Mack and Jenna discover Wingboy’s identity, and they dutifully tell her they  _ won’t _ tell her. Spear is so proud.

“He trusted you with a secret, and you  _ should _ keep it,” she says. “Unless you think it actively puts anyone in danger?”

“No,” Mack says. “I trust him that much.”

“And of course we know better than to trust him with  _ ours, _ ” her sister adds. Spear smiles.

“Good girls,” she says.

  
  
  


The thing is, she’d actually nailed the secret identity of Wing and his… well, his own  _ son _ , awhile ago. Eight year older than her, his son had been an accident in high school when the mother hadn’t been able to handle the pressure of a kid but had been forced by parents not to have an abortion. He’d raised his son from age sixteen, and the now-fourteen year old boy had been fighting with his dad for two years.

Wing’s  _ name _ was Aiden Johnson, and his son was Adam.

His day job was being an  _ artist _ .

She really wishes she could explain  _ why _ she decided to go to one of his exibit’s grand openings. He’s famous enough that there are twenty people there who she would love to stab through, but she ignores them in favor of Wing.

“Your work is beautiful,” she says, walking up to him. “I’ve never seen someone do so many amazing things with dark colors.”

Aiden smiles.

“I like to think so,” he says. “There’s something beautiful yet painful, watching darkness be turned to something more.”

“I definitely agree,” Spear says, fighting the urge to adjust her blonde wig over her short dark hair. “But sometimes it has to be done.”

Aiden looks her over.

“You’re interested in more than just my art, aren’t you?”

Spear smirks.

“Perhaps,” she says. “You can call me Lilith.”

“And can I call  _ you? _ ”

She really truly wishes she knew why she gave the hero her favorite semi-untraceable burner phone’s number.

  
  
  


She ends up on a date with him, wondering how that had happened. Somehow his idealism feels less like a gut punch when he’s wearing paint stained jeans and talking about how proud he is of his son’s win in a science fair.

“I’m proud of my kids, too,” she admits. He blinks.

“You have kids?”

“Ten.”

“ _ What? _ ”

Spear laughs.

“Adopted,” she says. “The oldest is only, hmm, five years younger than me? I’m… a bit worried about him, though.”

He’s begun hanging with the darker circles of “supervillains”.

“What’s he like?” Aiden asks.

“Passionate and caring,” Spear admits. “But he can’t get so angry. I just. I worry for him.”

Aiden sighs.

“I understand that,” he says. “I have a… business associate, and she’s right in her reasoning, but… she doesn’t use methods I agree with.” A sigh. “It’s a shame, I don’t mind when I’ve had to work with her.”

He shakes his head.

“But enough making this about me,” he says. “Really, all I can say is I’m sorry, and I hope you can get through to him.”

Spear sighs.

“Me too,” she says. “But enough heavy topics on the first date. What’s your favorite show to watch?”

Aiden excitedly gets going on the new topic, and Spear tries very hard not to think too deeply on his unwitting confession about herself.

  
  
  


She thinks she enjoyed the date to much. She doesn’t know what to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
